The mixed messages over the use of mammograms for breast cancer screening have continued, with a new study suggesting their radiation may harm the women they’re supposed to save.

Dutch researchers have found that women with a family history of breast cancer or a genetic susceptibility to it may increase their risk of cancer by taking mammograms at a young age.

The problem is these are the women who are often told to start taking mammograms early on in their lives as a precautionary measure.

The researchers looked at the data from six different studies involving 12,000 high-risk women from the US and Europe.

Four of the studies looked at the effects of low-dose radiation on women who carried a breast cancer mutation gene while the other two focused on women with a family history of breast cancer.

Across all high-risk women who’d been exposed to low-dose radiation (including mammograms and x-rays) the breast cancer risk was 1.5 times higher than for women who hadn’t been exposed to radiation.

For high-risk women who had either been exposed to radiation before the age of 20 or exposed to at least five doses of radiation the cancer risk was 2.5 times greater.

“Our findings suggest that low-dose radiation increases breast cancer risk among these young, high-risk women, and a careful approach is warranted,” said Marijke Jansen-van der Weide of the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands.

“Further, repeated exposure to low-dose radiation should be avoided.”